For a beautiful book on contemplation – part of a re-emerging tradition in western Christianity – see Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land(2005).

– Autobiography –

In My Own Way (1972) – highly entertaining account by the self-confessed ‘rascally’ English philosopher, Alan Watts, whose writings and recordings influenced the Beat and Hippie generations.

The Golden String (1954) – the early life and religious conversion(s) of Bede Griffiths, up until the point that he left England for India, where he later made his name helping to inspire inter-religious dialogue and the New Age.

Alan Watts Podcast – entertaining introductory talks on big philosophical questions, drawing on Indian, Chinese, and Japanese traditions; many of these were delivered to American college students, in a richly patrician English accent and slightly condescending, teasing style…

Des Hommes et Des Dieux [Of Gods and Men] (2011), directed by Xavier Beauvois, is set in Algeria and based on the true story of a small group of French monks and Muslim villagers facing the mounting suspicion and hostility of a local militia during the Civil War in the 1990s: